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I am Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science and Public Administration at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. I am also the editor of the academic journal The Latin Americanist.

Sunday, May 19, 2013

Apparently having one of the "best voting systems in the world" means that the government knows who you voted for! At least that is the case in Venezuela, where Nicolás Maduro announced that he knows the identities of the 900,000 chavistas who did not vote for him. Here is the YouTube clip.

To say this is a threat to democracy is an understatement. One of the biggest political problems for Maduro are the people who claim to support him, then vote for the opposition in the privacy of their voting machine. They would've voted for Hugo Chávez, but not for him. If he can intimidate those voters, then he is in better shape for future elections.

As a political scientist, you ought to know that you need to present more "evidence" than a simple youtube clip to illustrate that people's votes are recorded. That's an explosive charge that requires substantiation, not wild conjecture from a political scientist about what Maduro's statement (or misstatement) actually indicates.

After all, Greg, if what you're implying here is really true, why isn't the Caracas Chronicles (or the Associated Press, for that matter) all over the story? You know as well as I that Francisco Toro and Juan Nagel would be all over a story that people's votes are recorded, as they clearly have an interest in discrediting the government. Moreover, it is clear as day that AP is chomping at the bit to disgrace the Maduro government. So why is it that nobody is on this so-called story but you?

VIDEO : Super Big Spy Game : Venezuela-Gate : An audio tape is published where the most important Chavista TV Anchor of Venezuela speaks with the Chief of Cuban Counter-Intelligence and tells him about total corruption in Venezuela

Here you see how Cuba dominates Venezuela :

Today, Monday May 5, 2013 -- There is now a big scandal inside the Venezuela Dictatorship, showing a great Division between the two main dictators : Nicolás Maduro y Diosdado Cabello.

Venezuelan Most Important Chavista TV Anchor Mario Silva speaks in a secretly recorded audio with the Chief of Cuban counter intelligence and tells him about the Total corruption of Diosdado Cabello, his family and associates, with dollars, currencies, the economy, etc ...

Venezuelan Dictators are proceeding with great violence and terrorism against the Population, torturing and beating students and producing several deaths. In the National Assembly they almost killed several opposition deputies send 11 of them to the Hospitals. They are not paying their salaries, and returning to that parliament is risking their lives.

"Dictators"? "Almost killed" 11 deputies? Why do you waste people's time with so much hyperbole, Vicente? There's plenty to criticize in Venezuela, but hysteria and the deliberate use of hyperbole does not contribute to reasoned discussion.

How Venezuela has fallen under the dominion and control of the Cuban Dictatorship :

In short, a leaked phone conversation landed in the hands of the Venezuelan opposition and was broadcast nationally. The iconic 50-minute conversation was between Mario Silva — pro-Chavez Venezuelan politician who is also the anchor of the most hardcore pro-Government TV program on the state's TV station — and Aramis Palacio, a lieutenant colonel of Cuba's Secret Police, the G2.

The leaked conversation between the two men was initially recorded for the acting leader of Cuba — Raul Castro — in order to brief him on Venezuela's situation following the presidential elections which placed Hugo Chavez' hand-picked successor Nicolas Maduro as president of Venezuela with a razor thin 1 percent margin. The phone call gives an insider perspective on the rampant corruption as well as Cuba's influence within the Venezuelan government.

Many believe the tape is sure to shake the foundation of the already weak Maduro regime. While Venezuelan's listened to the recording, many were expecting the president to order all networks to join the state TV's broadcast - a strategy the government has used in other press releases to drown the opposition's televised addresses.

Surprisingly, the tape played without interruption. Meanwhile "Mario Silva" and "Confessions of Mario Silva" became world-wide trend on Twitter. Since the broadcast Mario Silva has stated that the entire phone conversation was "fake" and was manufactured by "Israel's Mossad and the CIA"